Course

International Logistics and Transportation

Faculty
Commerce & Business Administration
Department
Business
Course code
BUSN 4401
Credits
3.00
Semester length
15 Weeks X 4 Hours per Week = 60 Hours
Max class size
35
Method(s) of instruction
Lecture
Seminar
Course designation
Certificate in Global Competency
Industry designation
None
Typically offered
To be determined

Overview

Course description
This course presents an overview of logistics, as applied to international trade. Topics include: purchasing, inventory management, warehousing, transportation, distribution and integrated planning. The emphasis will be on small- to medium-sized businesses involved in finished-goods shipping.
Course content
  1. Introduction
    • description of all aspects of logistics
    • operational issues and problems in International Logistics
  2. Purchasing
    • buying
    • electronic data processing (EDP)
    • electronic order quantities (EOQ)
    • order forecasting
    • customer service
  3. Inventory Management and Production
    • maintenance
    • just in time (JIT)
    • materials requirement processing (MRP)
    • production demand linkages
  4. Warehousing
    • materials handling
    • storage systems
    • facilities location planning
    • warehouse layout and design
  5. Transportation
    • materials handling
    • modes of transport
    • intermodal shipping
    • packaging
    • distribution
  6. Customs
    • movement of goods across national boundaries
  7. Integrated Planning
  8. Delivery Procedures
    • packaging and labelling for the foreign market
    • transportation issues
    • receiving the shipment
  9. Customs Valuation Procedures
    • import legislation and rules
    • the D-memoranda
    • the harmonized system
    • tariff codes
    • calculating value and duty
    • tariff treatment
    • general interpretive rules (GIR)
    • the importance of classification
  10. Canada Customs Clearance Procedures
    • release on minimum documentation (RMD)
    • pre-arrival release system (PARS)
    • frequent importer release system (FIRST)
    • future trends
Learning activities

Lectures, seminars and case studies, with focus on small to medium sized business operations.  Visits will be made to local businesses and guest speakers will address the class.

Means of assessment
Cases (3-5)  30%
Project  20%
Midterm Examination  20%
Final Examination  30%
  100%

Students may conduct research as part of their coursework in this class. Instructors for the course are responsible for ensuring that student research projects comply with College policies on ethical conduct for research involving humans, which can require obtaining Informed Consent from participants and getting the approval of the Douglas College Research Ethics Board prior to conducting the research.

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, the successful student should be able to:

  1. describe the functions and activities involved in logistics;
  2. analyze logistics problems and suggest optimal solutions;
  3. develop logistics plans for shipping of goods to international destinations;
  4. develop a "paper trail" involving legal, statutory, insurance, customs clearance and shipping/distribution documentation.
Textbook materials

Textbooks and Materials to be Purchased by Students

Coyle, J. J.  The Management of Business Logistics, Latest Ed.  West Publishing Company.

Requisites

Course Guidelines

Course Guidelines for previous years are viewable by selecting the version desired. If you took this course and do not see a listing for the starting semester / year of the course, consider the previous version as the applicable version.

Course Transfers

These are for current course guidelines only. For a full list of archived courses please see https://www.bctransferguide.ca

Institution Transfer details for BUSN 4401
Langara College (LANG) LANG BUSM 2XXX (3)
Simon Fraser University (SFU) SFU BUS 1XX (3)
Thompson Rivers University (TRU) No credit
Trinity Western University (TWU) TWU BUSI 3XX (3)
University of British Columbia - Okanagan (UBCO) No credit
University of British Columbia - Vancouver (UBCV) UBCV COMM_V 2nd (3)
University of the Fraser Valley (UFV) UFV BUS 1XX (3)
University of Victoria (UVIC) No credit

Course Offerings

Winter 2025